How Bad Can I Possibly Be?
by Healer Kira
Summary: "Hello Greed-ler'. he spat. "Miss me?" An Alternate ending to The Lorax; what if the Once-ler who destroyed all of the truffula trees, was not actually Once-ler? One-shot, Hints of torture, no slash.


Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Lorax, book or movie. I don't even own copies of the them, in fact.

How Bad Can I Possibly Be?

…Very.

By Healer Kira

In the middle of what was once a fruitful and vibrant forest, a factory chugged on, manufacturing truffula leaves into thneeds. Smoke rose from the steel pipes of the factory, creating sick-looking purple clouds over the factory. Thousands of forlorn-looking stumps surrounded the plant, and off in the distance, tree- choppers were chopping down the few trees still growing. Swomee-Swans, slug covered Humming-Fish and Bar-ba loots, miserably trudged through the empty fields aimlessly, hopelessly struggling to find food.

The Greed-ler strode through his mansion towards his office, absently glancing at his pocket watch as he did so. The twins , Bret and Chet respectively opened the doors, allowing him to pass, then shut them firmly behind him.

'Stupid, but good security.' He smirked.

The man tore off his glasses and threw his self into his red chair, rolling up to the classy white desk in the center of the office. Greed-ler rubbed green gloved hands together gleefully as he gazed over a minuture model town laid out upon his desk; Thneedville, a sign on the model proclaimed.

"So how are things?"

Greed-ler jumped and whirled around. The Lorax sat on the railing outside on his balcony, looking sorrowfully over the ravaged fields. His large mustache was drooped, and his usually vibrant orange coat seemed, dull, and, dreary.

Greed-ler noticed none of this though, hissing irritably, "What are you doing here?"

Lorax ignored the question, turning to face Greed-ler with pitying green eyes. "Happy yet?" He asked. "You feel that hole deep down inside you? Or do you still need more?"

"Look." Greed-ler said, standing angrily. "If you've got a problem, with what I'm doing, why haven't you used your, quotem quote, 'powers', to stop me?" He sneered.

The Lorax looked down at the ground, then gazed back upward, staring into the man's red-tinted eyes. "I told you, that's not how it works."

"Right, I forgot," the Greed-ler strode to the Lorax."You're a fraud." He glared at the orange guardian. "I need you to get out. Now."

"Why?" The Lorax hopped from the railing and walked towards the inventor. "Do I make you uncomfortable? Remind you of the promises you made? Remind you of the man you **used** to be?" he accused, still staring at the man with pity and sorrow.

"You know what ?" The Greed-ler growled, "You can just shut your mustache! My conscious is clear," he pointed one finger threateningly and strode forward, forcing the Lorax to back down the stairs with a frightened look on his face.

"I have done nothing illegal, I have my rights, and I intend on bIggRrinG and bigGErIng and turning more truffula trees into thneeds!"

The Lorax stumbled and fell, landing on his backside. The Greed-ler leaned in close, fuming and gritting his teeth.

"AnD NotHiNg iS gOiNg tO stOp mE!"

The sudden roar of a tree-chopper drew the two's attention and both turned, just in time to see the machine draw back it's blade, and with a thwack! the tree was cut was cur through. It fell to the ground with an ominous thump and an emotion welled up in the usually composed Greed-ler- dread.

"Well that's it." The Lorax spoke regretfully. "The very last one." He glanced back up at the Greed-ler, whose jaw was dangling open like a Humming-Fish. "That may stop you."

The inventor looked around the vast valley, and saw that indeed, that that had been the last truffula tree. There were no more truffula's to be seen. 'Well, looks like my business is over.' He thought unemotionally. 'Had a good run while it lasted.'

He made sure a shocked expression was on his face, to fool the Lorax. Wouldn't want the annoying little furball to figure it out…

OoOoOoOoO

It was the next morning. The Greed-ler was standing dejectedly in front of his now abandoned factory. The family's RV pulled up. Isabella, who was driving, rolled down the window, and looked out at her favorite son,'Oncie'.

"Son," she started in a tearful tone, "You, have let me down."

"Bret!" Isabella barked. Bret and Chet looked at each other. " You are now my favorite child." She said sweetly.

With that, the RV tore off, Greed-ler gazing after it with a mask of confusion and betrayal. There was a patter of footsteps behind him, and he turned, only to see the Lorax standing on a mound of stones, staring at him with the same sorrowful expression he'd had the night before.

Behind him, a rise of creatures came into view, stopping just behind the Lorax. The Greed-ler back up a few steps nervously. "Hey, look, I don't want any trouble." He probably could take them, but still…

Lorax just looked at him. "And you won't get any." He said, shaking his head. "Not from them."

The procession of Swomee-Swans, Humming-Fish and Bar-ba loots, began trudging off once more towards the mountains in the east.

"Thanks to you and all your hacking and smogging and glumping, they can't live here anymore."

The large Bar-ba loot whom Once-ler had affectionately named 'Big Ben' glanced sadly at the stump of the first chopped tree with a sigh.

"So I'm sending them off." he shrugged. "Hopefully they'll be able to find a better place out there."

The Lorax looked down gloomily. Greed-ler, still looking at the line of creatures, spotted his mule in the procession.

"Melvin?" He cried in surprise. Melvin took one glance back before returning his gaze to the dry and tramped grass. "Melvin!" Greed-ler ran a few steps forward, but stopped. "Hey, Pipsqueak?" he called desperately. The Bar-ba loot in question looked back at him. Greed-ler pulled a marshmallow out of his pocket, and held it out half-heartedly. After all, even though he didn't really care about the stupid animal, Pipsqueak wasn't too bad of company. But the tiny creature turned forward, and continued trudging on.

Greed-ler's red-tinted eyes scanned the long line of hopeless animals before turning back to the Lorax, taking off his hat in a show of guilt. Slowly, he took a few steps toward the guardian, but before he could come close, Lorax shook his head, took a hold of his tail end, and was lifted up by a great beam off sunlight. Greed-ler watched, in awe as the creature flew past him, and slowly disappeared into the clouds. Yet, a beam of light remained.

Greed-ler turned. Where the Lorax has stood, a stone rested, the word **UNLESS **carved into it.

He snorted. Honestly, did the hairball really think this was going to guilt-trip him? Really? He had thought the Lorax was smarter. But, then again, the creature hadn't noticed the personality change between the time Once-ler was in charge, and when he had taken over, so, he supposed he shouldn't be too surprised.

The inventor turned to walk back into the mansion, his clever mind already formulating inventions that use truffula wood (because god knows he has enough of that). Perhaps he could-

WHAM!

From out of nowhere, a dirty and blood-stained fist had rammed into his upper jaw, sending the Greed-ler toppling to the ground. Two bony legs firmly pinned him to the ground, and before he could try to retaliate, cold steel met his throat. Greed-ler froze, staring upward into sapphire eyes. The Once- ler smirked. "Hello Greed-ler." he spat. "Miss me?"

Once-ler looked as if he had just been in a war; his outfit, which was similar to Greed-lers, was bloody and torn. Through the holes, you could see cuts, bruises and burns adorning most all of his body. Blood had trickled down from the side of his mouth and a crazed, almost maniac look was in his eyes. Once-ler leered down at his evil counterpart.

Greed-ler smiled nervously, gulping at the feel of the knife at his throat. "Oncie!" he exclaimed weakly. "You escaped!"

The Once-ler growled. "Yeah, No shit Sherlock." He pressed down harder on the knife.

"Now Oncie, why don't we just sit down and talk about this-" "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

The ensnared man gulped again as the Once-ler leaned close, a twisted smile playing on his lips.

"Goodbye Greed-ler. I hope you end up in hell."

With one swift slice, blood starting pouring from the Greed-lers throat. A strangled gasp forced its way from his lips. His eyes widened, then rolled to the back of his head and within minutes, he was dead.

The Once-ler stood from the corpse and stared down at it dispassionately for a moment. Then, grabbing his hat from the ground, he took one last look around and limped back inside.

OoOoOoOoOoO

_Well, that's over and done with. I had fun though. _

_This was based off of an idea that the Greed-ler was a separate being from the Once-ler, created after he agreed to cut down truffula trees. The Greed-ler forced his self from the Once-lers body, locked Oncie up, and took over the thneed business. _

_You got to admit, this theory is plausible. Even though 'Power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts completely,' the Once-ler couldn't have gone through such a drastic personality change in what, at the most six months?_

_Oh, and by the way, sorry for the cliché title. You see, titles are my number one issue when I write fanfiction, so… I decided to take the easy way out. Sorry._

_So, please review with what you think, and tips on how to improve my writing._


End file.
